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amyiw's review
5.0
Right from the beginning I attached to Cassandra (Sandy, April). Yes, she is artificial intelligence but she is just trying to live life, experience. But it just cannot happen, instead she is captured and vivisected. After being "saved", she doesn't have freedom or much of a life. It is all politics and not much is on her side until her actions put some strong backing to her side. Only now... she no longer has the freedom to live "her" life, but back to a similar life that she escaped. She has to navigate the politics and figure out who she can trust and who she will back during the severe political conflict that continues to have fire fights on the streets, where there never were fire fights before.
Sandy is a straightforward thinker and has a strong idea of what she considers right and wrong. She has been betrayed and it seems like it might happen again. Right from the start I was routing for her and wanted it to work out for her. It seemed like everything was working against her and perhaps the bad happening in the politics is because of her existence. Where does she fit in this universe. Much of the story revolves around how she deals with her emotions, and how others deal with them. The rest is the politics and try to stop a coup to the government.
I was riveted from the beginning though it was slower in the beginning as it was one sided. The only issue I really can say is it sometime got mired in the politics were a little less could have been used. I really really liked this one and will definitely go on.
Sandy is a straightforward thinker and has a strong idea of what she considers right and wrong. She has been betrayed and it seems like it might happen again. Right from the start I was routing for her and wanted it to work out for her. It seemed like everything was working against her and perhaps the bad happening in the politics is because of her existence. Where does she fit in this universe. Much of the story revolves around how she deals with her emotions, and how others deal with them. The rest is the politics and try to stop a coup to the government.
I was riveted from the beginning though it was slower in the beginning as it was one sided. The only issue I really can say is it sometime got mired in the politics were a little less could have been used. I really really liked this one and will definitely go on.
rilester's review
4.0
This book has been on my to-read list since 2004 and I'm glad I've waited 10 years to tackle this. I don't think back then would have enjoyed the politics or the ethics of this book. Completely by chance I ran into a copy of "23 years on fire" and that prompted me to dust this little gem off to have a read. All I can say is this is awesome. Great world building & depth in that department; great characters; great action sequences.
heyt's review
3.0
I originally picked this up after hearing about it from a listicle on AI protagonists. I enjoyed this as we follow AWOL GI (synthetic human) Cassandra Kresnov as she tries to start a civilian life. There was a lot of discussion on what it means to be human and the whys of creating artificial life. There is a lot of action as one faction of ideological extremists infiltrate a technological planet. I found Cassandra interesting as a character who has to ask herself why she is aligning with certain factions and what that means for her future.
books17's review
2.0
Throwing in the towel at 80%, life is too short to spend on bad books. Just didn't gel with me.
lainy122's review
I was recommended this book by someone at work, and while I can definitely see why they thought I would like it, I just...didn't.
It had all the elements that I normally love - an interesting and well-rounded world build, an independent main character who is able to think for herself, a complete badass bisexual side character who completely stole the show...and yet I found I was getting bored as I read it.
I think it was partly to do with the continuous interruption of politics I didn't really care about, and partly to do with the fact that even though the reader is constantly reminded how dangerous the AI main character is, we don't really see her do anything. The one major action sequence in the book is switched to the point of view of another character, who only sees our hero emerge from the smoke.
It felt like a lot of waiting and build up with nothing to really show for it. It was very unsatisfying.
Put it down on page 384 and just never felt inspired to pick it up and read the last 60 pages. DNF.
It had all the elements that I normally love - an interesting and well-rounded world build, an independent main character who is able to think for herself, a complete badass bisexual side character who completely stole the show...and yet I found I was getting bored as I read it.
I think it was partly to do with the continuous interruption of politics I didn't really care about, and partly to do with the fact that even though the reader is constantly reminded how dangerous the AI main character is, we don't really see her do anything. The one major action sequence in the book is switched to the point of view of another character, who only sees our hero emerge from the smoke.
It felt like a lot of waiting and build up with nothing to really show for it. It was very unsatisfying.
Put it down on page 384 and just never felt inspired to pick it up and read the last 60 pages. DNF.
norma_cenva's review
5.0
I enjoyed this book so much, an amazing write-up, great world-realization and very immersive!
lushr's review
4.0
This is a really thrilling adventure of a female GI (intelligent android) who was experimentally built to be so human-like that she questions whether she wants to be a tool of war, and leaves the faction that created her to live a normal life. That doesn't work out of course. Leaving lots of fast-paced action and so many twists it's pretty hard to guess what's going to happen in the next ten pages!
The world is a future of Indian/Middle eastern influence in a modern futuristic world, and it really adds some fascinating flavour, emphasising the importance of culture versus technology, old knowledge and new knowledge in a really intriguing way which shows in the different characters and their backgrounds as they appear in the story.
In the first third of the book there are no less than four intelligent conversations between the female protagonist and three other intelligent women. They do not talk about men. so this book flies through the bechler test and is a surprising joy to read from that perspective. It's funny you don't miss what you never had before. But the depth of insight this book provides into characters (male and female) and thoughtful conversation, the world-building, the intelligence of the characters leading the plot is really satisfying to read.
On the other hand the main character, as clearly depicted in the opening chapter is a fanboy's wet dream and she is highly sexualised (a bit of a wounding blow to the feminist reader). And the world building descriptions make this book about 50 pages longer than it needed to be, I found it very hard to visualise what was being described and had to skim through a bit. But this is the first in a series, and the world being built is a fascinating and beautiful one. And if you don't like politics you can just skim through. I quite enjoyed the politics and colourful characters that came into play at each level of the book, every character is interesting, none of them are cardboard cutouts. The mind-blowing action scenes ensure there's something for everyone!
The world is a future of Indian/Middle eastern influence in a modern futuristic world, and it really adds some fascinating flavour, emphasising the importance of culture versus technology, old knowledge and new knowledge in a really intriguing way which shows in the different characters and their backgrounds as they appear in the story.
In the first third of the book there are no less than four intelligent conversations between the female protagonist and three other intelligent women. They do not talk about men. so this book flies through the bechler test and is a surprising joy to read from that perspective. It's funny you don't miss what you never had before. But the depth of insight this book provides into characters (male and female) and thoughtful conversation, the world-building, the intelligence of the characters leading the plot is really satisfying to read.
On the other hand the main character, as clearly depicted in the opening chapter is a fanboy's wet dream and she is highly sexualised (a bit of a wounding blow to the feminist reader). And the world building descriptions make this book about 50 pages longer than it needed to be, I found it very hard to visualise what was being described and had to skim through a bit. But this is the first in a series, and the world being built is a fascinating and beautiful one. And if you don't like politics you can just skim through. I quite enjoyed the politics and colourful characters that came into play at each level of the book, every character is interesting, none of them are cardboard cutouts. The mind-blowing action scenes ensure there's something for everyone!
bookishmews's review
2.0
While the action and the general plot line of this story were enjoyable I found the sex to be gratuitous. It was distracting to the point of determent. I felt the story would have been better off without the many descriptions of how the main character likes her sex “uncomplicated and frequent”.
colossal's review
4.0
This is a reread for me. First time around was when it was first published back in the early 2000s, and I've been a fan of this author ever since. The only books of his I haven't read at this point are books 5 and 6 of this series, so I'm doing a slow reread of them.
Cassandra Kresnov is a GI (General Issue android) from a pro-biotechnology culture called the League. The League had been at war with the Federation, but the war is now over with an inconclusive result. Cassandra has left the League and is now trying to live under a false identity on the planet of Callay in the enormous city of Tanusha. GIs are not legal in the Federation, and a GI as advanced as Cassandra is would be seen by Federation culture as a killing machine. Cassandra is successfully doing so when she's attacked, kidnapped and nearly disassembled by a mysterious group and only saved when a Tanushan SWAT team rescues her. "Rescue" is a difficult word for what awaits Cassandra as a known GI in a culture that's hostile to them.
This is a fairly straight-forward action piece with an intelligence agency from a large interstellar government performing illegal black ops in a major city of one of its member planets. What makes it really interesting, besides the fantastic character of Cassandra herself, is the well-realized multicultural nature of Tanusha as a society where we get to see various Asian cultural elements more dominant than European ones. There's also the element of the status of a GI in an otherwise egalitarian society and whether she can actually belong.
I loved this the first time around, and I still liked it this time, but as you'd expect his later work is much better written.
Cassandra Kresnov is a GI (General Issue android) from a pro-biotechnology culture called the League. The League had been at war with the Federation, but the war is now over with an inconclusive result. Cassandra has left the League and is now trying to live under a false identity on the planet of Callay in the enormous city of Tanusha. GIs are not legal in the Federation, and a GI as advanced as Cassandra is would be seen by Federation culture as a killing machine. Cassandra is successfully doing so when she's attacked, kidnapped and nearly disassembled by a mysterious group and only saved when a Tanushan SWAT team rescues her. "Rescue" is a difficult word for what awaits Cassandra as a known GI in a culture that's hostile to them.
This is a fairly straight-forward action piece with an intelligence agency from a large interstellar government performing illegal black ops in a major city of one of its member planets. What makes it really interesting, besides the fantastic character of Cassandra herself, is the well-realized multicultural nature of Tanusha as a society where we get to see various Asian cultural elements more dominant than European ones. There's also the element of the status of a GI in an otherwise egalitarian society and whether she can actually belong.
I loved this the first time around, and I still liked it this time, but as you'd expect his later work is much better written.
tome15's review
4.0
Shepherd, Joel. Crossover. 2001. Cassandra Kresnov No. 1. Pyr, 2006.
Australian science fiction is sometimes a bit slow to penetrate the U.S. market. Although Joel Shepherd is a writer with more than 20 titles in his list, Crossover is the first one I have read, and I am going to make it a point to read more of his work. His heroine, Cassandra Kresnov, is an android created as a warrior. Star Trek fans will immediately think—Data in a Seven of Nine body with more libido than both of them put together. Post-traumatic stress has caused her to abandon her mission, desert, and try to live in secret in the enemy’s capital. She soon finds herself drawn back into a war that is more morally complex than she ever suspected. Crossover is well-plotted, with character-driven action and the R-rated sex and violence one expects from the genre.
Australian science fiction is sometimes a bit slow to penetrate the U.S. market. Although Joel Shepherd is a writer with more than 20 titles in his list, Crossover is the first one I have read, and I am going to make it a point to read more of his work. His heroine, Cassandra Kresnov, is an android created as a warrior. Star Trek fans will immediately think—Data in a Seven of Nine body with more libido than both of them put together. Post-traumatic stress has caused her to abandon her mission, desert, and try to live in secret in the enemy’s capital. She soon finds herself drawn back into a war that is more morally complex than she ever suspected. Crossover is well-plotted, with character-driven action and the R-rated sex and violence one expects from the genre.